The Lost Ponies
by MouseyMoose
Summary: (Moose). Fili and Kili were in charge of looking after the ponies one night... so how did they lose track of them? The Hobbit AUJ. Movieverse. No slash.


**Author's note: Hey so this is kind of funny.. Mouse and I were texting each other the other night as I was watching The Hobbit Unexpected Journey.. And I quoted the movie where Fili said, "If you run into trouble hoot twice like a Barn owl, and once like a Brown owl!" Then we got into character and basically role-played Fili and Kili as to what we thought would happen before they lost the ponies, and what happened after they sent Bilbo off to go save the ponies. Then She was all, "Write it down Moose!" and I was like, "No you do it!"**

**Now here I am sense I lost the argument.**

**I hope you like this one-shot.**

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The wind rustled the leaves on the trees as it whirled around the sky. The moon was high and bright, and what a relief that was, sense Fili and Kili did not have the privilege of getting their own fire. The mid-summer's air was crisp and warm, but definitely not at night. As the days grew on, and autumn crept closer, it seemed to get colder and colder.

The brother's stuck closely together on this journey, as they often did when they were back home, so to them this was no different then every other day. Whenever their Uncle, Thorin, assigned one of them to keep watch, both of them would get the job. They didn't mind, they enjoyed each other's company more than anyone else.

Tonight was one of those nights. They were told to watch after all 16 of the ponies. They grumbled about it to each other when they were certain their uncle wasn't listening. Knowing they didn't have a say in the matter, the too young dwarves trudged to the forest to look after the ponies. However, As the night grew on, Kili had trouble sitting still.

"I have to do something, Fee! I can't do this all night!" Kili moped. He sat down next to his brother who was smoking his pipe.

Unlike his younger brother, Fili didn't mind the job. He had his legs crossed as he sat with his back to the tree. He let out a big puff of smoke before giving Kili a glance.

"Why don't you go ask if Bombur made supper yet? I'm starving."

"Alright, I am too." Kili sighed, standing up on his feet.

He walked back to where the others had made camp, being careful not to step on any thorn bushes, which just happened to be littered throughout the woods.

The others were gathered around the warm little fire, which made Kili agitated, seeing as how Thorin never let them have their own.

Bombur was in the process of making a stew it seemed, (judging from the smell). Kili was grateful everyone was able to convince Bombur to go along with this quest. It would've been a nightmare watching his brother or cousin cook.

"How's supper coming?" Kili asked. It spooked the dwarves, sense most of them didn't see him come out of the forest.

Bombur looked up, "Almost finished." He said.

Kili nodded, ignoring his grumbling stomach.

Kili noticed their burglar, Bilbo, pacing back and forth, constantly looking around. Just watching him made Kili uneasy and on edge.

He walked up to Bilbo and laid a hand on his shoulder, "Everything alright Master Bilbo?"

It made Bilbo jump a little, and he looked at Kili with wide eyes. "I'm just a little worried about Gandalf.. That's all."

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Kili replied.

Bilbo seemed nowhere satisfied with that answer, but sat down in the grass anyways.

Kili made his way over to the fire they had going, and warmed up his hands for a few minutes.

He noticed Ori huddled in between his two older brothers, Dori and Nori. Ori was practically being squished from how close his brothers were. They were awfully protective of him, after all, Ori was the youngest Dwarf of them all.

However, Kili knew how much it bugged Ori to be fathered by his brothers constantly, being ridiculed for every mistake he makes.

"Why don't you give Ori a little breathing room?" Kili asked Dori.

Ori gave Kili a thankful glance in return for that suggestion. Dori rolled his eyes and scooted over, making Ori sigh and smile brightly.

After a few minutes more, Fili came marching through the opening in the forest, mumbling under his breath. Kili realized he might've been taking too long to check if supper was ready.. He had totally forgotten about his brother that was just as starving as he was.

Kili ran over to his brother, "Hey…" He said awkwardly.

"I assume dinner is ready..?" Fili asked.

"Give me a few more minutes.. This isn't as easy as it looks." Bombur called, stirring the pot of stew.

Fili looked from Bombur to Kili in an annoyed fashion. "So you decided to keep by the fire where it's warm then, is that it?"

Kili knew his brother was kidding, but he knew he was definitely irritated.

"What? No.. No you got it all wrong brother.." Kili began.

"Yeah, yeah.. Tell me on the way back." Fili pulled Kili by his sleeve back into the woods.

"I got distracted." Kili argued.

"Oh I wouldn't have guessed." Fili smirked.

Kili shoved his brother's shoulder lightly.

Snap.

The two dwarves froze in their steps.

Snap.

This time the noise was louder, more forceful.

The two glanced at each other. The only noise coming from them was their rapid breathing.

"What is that?" Kili whispered.

Fili held up a hand to silence his brother. They both stood there, listening closely.

A loud "CRACK" was enough to push them forwards. From the sound it, the brother's realized the noise was the sound of a tree being pulled from it's roots.

Another familiar sound echoed throughout the forest. This time they knew exactly what it was.

Their ponies.

They crept throughout the woods, going fast, but silent as a dwarf could possibly be.

They were relieved but frightened at the same time as they reached their ponies.

A few of them were neighing and frazzled. Shaking their muzzles back and forth.

Two upturned trees lay beside them.

"What happened!?" Kili asked his brother worriedly. "We were only gone for a few minutes!"

Fili tried to act calm, but worried on the inside a great deal. "Well.. Something big must've pulled the trees from their roots like this.."

"Like what?"

Fili shrugged. He walked over to the frantic ponies and tried to ease their fear.

Kili stood, eyes wide, muttering something to himself.

Fili looked over at him, his hand still on the ponies snout. "What?" He asked, not sure if he was meant to hear what Kili was saying.

Kili stay still, looking around and counting on his fingers. "There's.. only fourteen of them, Fee.."

"What?" Fili asked more forcefully.

"You count!" Kili told him, motioning to the ponies.

Fili counted, double counted, even triple counted, but his brother was correct.

There's only fourteen ponies.

Both of their guts twisted into knots at the thought of what their Uncle Thorin would say to them when he found out.

At that moment, Bilbo came walking through the forest with two bowls of soup in his hands. The two dwarves didn't take notice of him until Bilbo stepped up beside the two of them. He tried to hand them the bowls but niether of them took it, instead, they stood still, motionless, trying to process the situation.

They were brought back from deep thought by Bilbo, "What's the matter..?"

"We're suppose to be looking after the ponies." Kili responded.

"Only we've encountered a.. Slight problem." Fili chimed in.

"We had sixteen.."

"Now there's fourteen.." Fili finished his brother's sentence.

Kili stepped forward, running a hand through his dark, long hair. "Daisy and Bungo are missing."

"Well that's not good.." Bilbo said, following Kili with the soup still in his hands. He noticed the two trees laying on their sides and added, "And that is not good at all.. Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

Fili quickly responded, "Uh no.. Let's not worry him.. As our official burglar, we thought you might want to look into it."

Bilbo stuttered, "Well uh.. It looks like something big uprooted these trees.."

Kili nodded, "That was our thinking."

"It's something very big.. And possibly quite dangerous.."

Fili was half listening to the Hobbit. He didn't respect the fact the was just stating the obvious. He wandered farther from the ponies before stopping suddenly. "Hey.." he said, getting the others attention. "There's a light.. Over here!" He whispered to them.

Kili and Bilbo followed Fili deeper into the woods.

"Stay down." Kili whispered to Bilbo.

The three of them crouched behind a fallen tree, and sure enough, the flicker of some sort of light shone in the distance.

A strange type of laughter roared came from further out, and Bilbo leaned over to Fili.

"What is it?" He asked the dwarf.

Fili didn't respond, not trying to be rude, but not paying attention to him either.

"Trolls." Kili said for his brother.

The two dwarves hopped over the tree and ran silently through the forest towards the source of the sound. They left behind Bilbo, but he soon followed them, trying to keep up with their quick pace, and also trying not to spill the soup outside the bowl.

A loud "crack" close by, them made them stop behind another tree, sinking low to the ground. An enormous, pale troll came trudging through the woods, holding two ponies in both arms. The ponies were going crazy, neighing loudly.

Bilbo cautiously peered around the tree he was hiding behind. "He's got Myrtle and Minty!" He whispered to the brothers.

"I think they're gonna eat them, we have to do something.." Bilbo said, urgently.

The two nodded in sync, "Yes, you should." Kili told Bilbo.

He shot up and grabbed the bowl from Bilbo in a single sweeping motion.

"Mountain Trolls are slow and stupid, and you're so small they'll never see you!" said Kili.

Bilbo immediately rejected the idea, shaking his head rapidly and pointing a finger at Kili.

"Me? No, no, no.."

"It's perfectly safe. We'll be right behind you." Kili told him.

"If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a Barn owl, and once like a Brown owl!" Fili said to Bilbo, carefully taking the second bowl of soup from him, and pushing him forwards.

As soon as Bilbo was faced in the other direction, Kili and Fili shot each other glances, and ran in the other direction, chuckling silently to themselves.

They didn't dare look back until they were near where they left the other ponies.

They turned to each other, no longer able to keep straight faces. They burst out laughing, trying hard to keep their voices low, but horribly failing.

"You think Mister Baggins will be okay?" Fili asked his brother, digging into his soup.

Kili hesitated, "Hmm.. I suppose now is the time for our burglar to prove himself."

"What do you think Uncle will say to us when he finds out we did that?" Fili asked, suddenly serious.

"You worry too much brother!" Kili laughed, stuffing his mouth with soup. It was cold, but it was food.

They were about half way done with their food when they looked up.

"Did you hear that?" Fili asked.

Kili nodded, looking in the direction to which they sent Bilbo.

The two set down the bowls on the ground, running as silently as they could towards the noise. This time, they ran closer than they dared to the light, it actually turned out to be three, large trolls, huddled around a fire.

Their burglar was surrounded by Trolls, trying to escape their swinging arms. The beasts couldn't catch the tiny Hobbit, he seemed to be too quick for them.

"Fili." Kili whispered as quietly as possible, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Go back and get the others."

"What?" Fili questioned him in a denying tone.

"Now! We don't have any time to argue."

Fili bounced on heels. "Don't.. Don't do anything stupid Kee." He sighed.

"I mean it." Fili said as he crept away.

Fili ran as silently and as quickly as ever. He didn't notice his pants got caught on a thorn bush, and he cursed silently as he tugged the fabric away from entanglement.

He busted through the opening of the forest, panting furiously. He had the whole companies attention now.

"What is it, Fili?" Thorin asked him immediately, running to him.

His nephew barely got out the words, "Bilbo.. Trolls.. Is trapped!"

That was all the dwarves needed to hear before they picked up their weapons and ran into the forest.

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**Author's note: Holy crap! So this was a lot longer then I was planning it to be! All the same I hope you enjoyed it.. As always, I'm never 100% with my stories, but I worked hard on it.. And that's all that matters.. Right?… Right?**

**Thanks for helping me with ideas Mouse. We wrote the last part together when we were RP. Which... we do very often now that I think about it. **

**Okay. Thanks for reading! **

**-Moose. **


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